


To Convince You That You're Worth It

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Aftercare, Bruce Banner Feels, Bruce Feels, Caning, Corporal Punishment, Dom Tony, Dom/sub, Edgeplay, M/M, Punishment, Sub Bruce, Tony Stark Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-20
Updated: 2012-10-20
Packaged: 2017-11-16 16:14:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/541397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a fill for <a href="http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/11065.html?thread=25102393&">this prompt</a>:</p><p>  <i>I just want a scenerio in which a character has to take a really challenging punishment and they grapple with it.</i></p><p>  <i>This can be anything from the physical [...] to the fear based [...] to the psychological [...]</i></p><p>  <i>Big bonus points if you have them cringing away from something and the Dominant character scolds them or puts them back into place. Sort of a 'uh uh, you stay right there and take it' sort of deal. Or a Dominant using supportive words during the punishment. Something along the lines of 'I know you can handle this, you're my brave boy, etc...'</i></p><p>  <i>I'd also appreciate both discussion beforehand about what's being punished, a safeword check, and some catharsis and/or aftercare. I'd like for the punishment to be a sort of cleansing experience for the sub in question--making amends, proving they can withstand/be brave, feeling a release.</i></p><p>I wrote this with Tony as the Dominant and Bruce as the submissive. The punishment I chose was caning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Convince You That You're Worth It

**Author's Note:**

> 1) Edgeplay (caning, specifically). Please don't read this if that makes you uncomfortable.
> 
> 2) I am orphaning this work for the sake of anonymity, but I will still be checking and possibly answering any questions or comments.

It took every ounce of Bruce's self-control to stay calm as he followed Tony back to his bedroom. He dropped to his knees as soon as the door slid shut.

“Sir, I--”

Tony raised a hand and Bruce fell silent.

“You have disappointed me, Bruce, and I am going to punish you for this.” Bruce’s breath hitched. They had discussed the possibility of punishment--real punishment, outside of the context of a scene--and had agreed to it, but in the more-than-a-year since then, his Dom had never actually implemented that part of their agreement; he could usually keep Bruce in line with a sharp reminder or, at the most, a threat.

“But first,” Tony continued, “you are going to explain to me why I’m disappointed.”

“Because I ran away?” Bruce frowned. “But--”

“Wrong,” Tony interrupted. “Try again.”

Bruce felt his safeword on the tip of his tongue; this was getting close to the sort of thing they had agreed was _not_ a part of a D/s relationship, but he decided to see where it was going first.

He did run away, but he also had a good reason. The previous evening, he had overheard Tony talking to an army officer, and from the tone of the conversation, it was clear that the officer had been a long-time friend of Tony's, probably from his weapons-development days. This, however, wasn’t a friendly call; the officer was asking Tony to hand Bruce over as army property, and threatening him with accusations of high treason should he refuse.

That was when Bruce knew he needed to leave; he couldn’t force Tony to make that sort of choice. He had considered talking to him about it, but realised that if Tony would choose his country and his old friend, Bruce didn’t want to know about it, and if Tony would choose Bruce, he couldn’t make him complicit in an act of treason. Thus, he left a note saying as much, packed what few belongings he had, and slipped out the door.

Yet Tony had found him and brought him home, and was now sitting on the bed in front of his kneeling sub, demanding an answer.

“Because I didn't tell you beforehand? You know I--”

“Still wrong. Keep trying.”

Now, Bruce was confused. Was it the mechanics of how he had run away?

“Because I inserted a bug in your code to distract you?”

Tony raised an eyebrow.

“You aren’t getting any closer, Bruce, so let me explain some things to you. You are not my prisoner and you are not my slave. You are within your right to leave, if that’s what you want. Hightailing without telling me isn’t cool, but I’ve done worse. Sabotaging my code, well, I might discipline you for that, too, later, but that’s not the point.”

“I am disappointed in you because of the reason you left so abruptly.” He took the note Bruce had written out of his pocket.

“Let’s see. `I love you too much to make you choose between doing the right thing and protecting your sub, or between loyalty to your old friend and to your new lover,’” he read off Bruce’s note.

Bruce lowered his gaze when Tony glanced up from reading, but Tony put a firm hand under his chin and lifted his face so he could do nothing but meet those dark eyes.

“It hurts me that you think this is even a choice,” Tony said quietly. “Protecting you from the army _is_ doing the right thing, and no friend of mine would treat a wonderful, amazing person like you as property to be confiscated and weaponised at will.”

“But he was right. I’m not worth it--you must know that.”

“That’s not your call,” Tony snapped. “That's is the point. _I_ decide what you’re worth or not worth; we agreed from the start that I would make those calls and you would trust my decisions. If I say that you are worth it--and I have said this many times--then you are worth it. You promised to trust me. Was that a lie, Bruce?”

“No, sir, I never meant...” Bruce suddenly felt like Tony was too far away for them to be having this conversation. Tony must have sensed this, because in the next instant, he was pulling Bruce off his knees and into his Dom’s embrace.

“I’m sorry,” Bruce whispered. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I know you didn’t,” Tony sighed. “But you did break your promise, and you tried to prevent me from fulfilling mine. You have disappointed me, and you deserve to be punished for this. Do you agree?”

“Yes, sir,” Bruce mumbled, squirming in Tony’s arms.

“Good.” Tony stood up, pushing his sub off his lap. “Go get me the cane.”

Bruce shuddered. They had acquired a cane in the early days of their relationship, learned how to use it, and each tried two strokes on the other to know how it felt, but both parties found it too brutal to be arousing, so they had put it away and not touched it since.

Bruce’s legs felt wobbly as he went, like they weren’t meant to support him, but somehow, he made his way there and back. He dropped to his knees in front of his Dom and presented the cane on his open palms.

“Clothes off,” Tony said, taking the cane. He spoke softly, but there was steel in his tone, and Bruce had to struggle not to flinch. While Bruce took his clothes off and folded them into a neat pile on the floor, Tony took out a disinfectant cloth and wiped the cane with it.

“Bend over the desk,” Tony ordered, “and spread your feet apart.” Bruce complied with deceptive serenity, but then grabbed the opposite edge to steady himself.

“Explain to me why I’m punishing you, Bruce.”

“Because I failed to trust you, and because I tried to prevent you from fulfilling your promise to protect me.”

“That’s right.” He touched the cane lightly across the upper part of Bruce’s thighs, and Bruce gave up on the struggle not to tremble.

“I’m going to go until I decide that you’ve had enough. After each stroke you are going to count it and thank me for it. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Bruce breathed.

“Ready?” Tony asked.

Of course not. Bruce would never be ready for this. “Yes, sir,” he mumbled, taking a breath and bracing himself.

The cane hissed in the air and cracked across his backside and oh god, either he had completely forgotten how much this hurt, or Tony was really going for it this time--Bruce couldn’t help the squeal that escaped his throat and he started to push up before he caught himself.

“I didn’t hear any counting,” Tony prodded after Bruce lowered his body back down.

“One. Thank you, sir,” Bruce hissed.

The second stroke whistled through the air and landed lower down, near the top of his thighs. It burned as much as the first, but he bit back the yelp. “Two. Thank you, sir,” he bit out.

The third and fourth strokes landed between the first two and Bruce could feel the sting of tears in his eyes. The fifth stroke crossed the second one, landing harder than any of the others and Bruce shot up with a scream, nearly bumping into his Dom.

Tony raised an eyebrow. “Did I say you could get up?”

For the second time that evening, Bruce felt his safeword on his tongue, but Tony was looking at him like he absolutely believed Bruce could take this, and that gave Bruce the courage he needed as he gingerly lowered his weight back down. “Five. Thank you, sir,” he mumbled.

The sixth stroke was slightly lighter than the others, but it also landed lower down where his thighs met his bottom, so it still stung. He managed to bite back the yelp that time.

“Six. Thank you, sir.”

“You’re taking it well, Bruce. We’re halfway there. It will be six more.”

Bruce gasped. _Six more?_ He really didn’t think he could take six more. His thoughts were interrupted when the cane swished through the air again. The seventh stroke landed higher up than the others, a new line of fire blooming across his abused bottom, but the eighth one cut across several previous strokes, and if he thought the other ones were bad that one was brutalising.

Bruce screamed and stood up again.

“Please, please Master,” he begged, taking short shallow breaths, “I am sorry and I know I deserve this, but please, I can’t--I can’t take this, Master.”

“Hey,” Tony put the cane on the desk, and put one hand on Bruce’s shoulder and another under his chin. “Bruce, look at me.”

Bruce did.

“Breathe with me,” he said. “In,” Tony drew a deep breath and Bruce followed suit. “Out,” they exhaled. "In... out... " Several breaths later, Bruce was breathing normally again.

“Are you ready to take the rest of your punishment?” Tony asked.

Bruce's rear was bruised, throbbing, and bleeding in more than one spot, but he managed to grit out a “yes, sir,” and put his weight back on the desk, sticking out his abused bottom.

“The eighth count,” Tony reminded him, as he used a sterilised wipe to clean some of the blood from where the eighth stroke broke Bruce’s skin.

“Eight. Thank you, sir,” Bruce hissed from the sting of the wipe.

The next two strokes were aimed at his upper thighs, so they avoided crossing the earlier ones, but each one raised a new line of fire across the sub's thighs and he was crying unashamedly by then. Eleven crossed both of them, the pain bright and all-consuming, and he had to repeat his “eleven, thank you, sir” several times before it came out intelligibly.

The last stroke landed so hard it probably tore his skin in several places. He wasn’t sure if his last count came out audibly at all around the strangled scream, but he supposed it must have, because then Tony was helping him up and pulling into a hug.

“It's okay, it's over,” Tony mumbled, guiding him to the bed “You took that so well. You are wonderful, Bruce. I’m so proud of you.”

“I’m so sorry,” Bruce sobbed as Tony laid him down on his stomach.

“I know,” Tony replied. He handed Bruce a bottle of water from the mini-bar, and ran a cool, wet cloth down Bruce’s tear-stained cheek. “I forgive you.”

They stayed in silence for a few minutes as Bruce sipped at the water, and Tony cleaned and tended to his welts. When this was done, he slid into bed next to Bruce, and pulled his sub into a tight hug.

“Thank you for this, Tony,” Bruce murmured. “I love you”.

“I love you, too, Bruce,” Tony replied. “More than you can imagine.”

And they fell asleep thus, curled up against each other.

**Author's Note:**

> 1) I have never done anything remotely resembling D/s in real life, so apologies for any glaring errors.
> 
> 2) Apologies, also, for the out-of-character-ness. This is probably the most out-of-character fic I’ve ever written, and I’m including crack-fic in that count. This was really an exercise in writing D/s, and now I can definitely see why so few people make Tony the Dom in these sorts of fic.


End file.
